Cydia

Last week, Apple had started accepting donations from iTunes users through the iTunes Store for the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy, which ripped through the Eastern coast of the United States and caused a ton of damage.

Apple employees have received an e-mail from Apple CEO Tim Cook, announcing that Apple has donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross themselves to assist with the efforts:

Originally Posted by Tim Cook

Team:

For the past week, our thoughts have been with those affected by Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. And Apple employees and customers the world over have raised millions of dollars toward the relief effort so far. But we can always do more.

That's why, on behalf of all our employees, Apple is making a donation of $2.5 million to the American Red Cross to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief. We hope this contribution will help families, businesses, and communities recover and rebuild.

Tim Cook
November 8, 2012

The gesture is a great demonstration of goodwill from the company and we’re glad to see that Apple is doing something to help the numerous families affected by Sandy. Those affected by the storm will certainly appreciate the help.

Sure, Apple has billions upon billions of dollars and $2.5 million may not seem like a lot, but it’s the thought that counts. The $2.5 million dollars is a separate figure from what iTunes users have also donated, which Tim Cook cites as "millions" of dollars.

God this is a first, & I know they said they done it before but never told anyone :-/ my arse.

Apple have often publicly donated to the American Red Cross. Haiti is one that comes to mind in recent years.
While the amount donated would be the equivalent of you or me donating 10cents, its still 2.5million more than what was donated yesterday and 2.5million more than most people or companies will donate

Now my cynical side. The reality of this is that they made 26 billion in profit last year 2011. Now the math 2,500,00/26,000,000,000 =0.01 percent. Now lets look at someone making $50,000 dollars a year and donates the 200 on their website.
That's .4 percent and we all know that $50,000 is more like 36,000 after taxes which is .56 percent of their income.

Again great that Apple did this but it's good advertising and about the same as they pay for a single commercial during the Super Bowl.

With the kind of money they brag about every time they get on stage at an unavailing of a new product, a 100 million donation would have been a better number to throw at the victims of the hurricane. Thats also a drop in the bucket and found money with the verdict they got from Samsung.

Not an Apple hater in anyway. Just get tired of these billion dollar corps not giving the kind of money they really could. And yes 2.5 million will go along way to help a lot of families. Just think how many more could be helped if they would give up just 1 percent of last years profit, hell half a percent like the person making $50,000. That would be 130 million. Kind of crazy that 1/2 of one percent of profit is 130 million.

Samsung donated 3 million last week. I think it's great both of these companies donated, no matter what there actual donation amount was. This 5.5 million between the two companies will go far in rebuilding these communities.

NY is expecting to have approximately $33 billion in losses, and NJ is seeing damage numbers as much as or larger than NY. And those are initial estimates on two of the 7-10 states affected...

2.5 million won't honestly do much in the scheme of things. Now had several major companies donated about 25-50 million each (particularly the ones like Samsung and Apple that have money coffers all over), then it would've been a lot more 'nice.'

Recently a WebOS developer group did a raffle of about $1500 worth of stuff (most of which was their own) and wound making a $9000 donation to two small charities in Texas and Louisiana. Now, that's a bigger represented donation IMO. This 'announcements' donation amount is like giving a penny to Salvation Army, it will only last a second and really most will be tied up in red tape and not really helping...

Apple isn't obligated to give anything, yet here you are bashing them. Jeez. The hate on Apple is strong.

You're absolutely right.

And 2.5 million dollars may not be anywhere near close, but if you missed the rather important detail here, that's just from Apple alone. It doesn't include the millions of other dollars raised by private donations. Tim Cook said people donated "millions" of dollars in iTunes. Add that to the 2.5 million and you have a much larger figure.